Swingtime in the Movies (1938)

Excellent, Without a doubt!!

Best movie of this year hands down!

A movie that not only functions as a solid scarefest but a razor-sharp satire.

A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

A Warner Bros. treat, filmed in bright Technicolor, SWINGTIME IN THE MOVIES is a breezy short subject the studio obviously used to demonstrate its skillful handling of color photography in the year that produced THE ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD ('38).FRITZ FELD is the irate director with a language problem--and obviously doing a take-off of Warner's director Michael Curtiz who used to fracture the English language ("Bring on the Empty Horses").JOHN CARROLL gets a chance to demonstrate his rich baritone voice with some forgettable song numbers and KATHRYN KANE is the waitress who is discovered in the studio commissary when director Feld wants to find a girl with a Southern accent for his latest western.A few Warner stars are seen in the commissary having lunch: HUMPHREY BOGART, PAT O'BRIEN and JOHN GARFIELD--in what may well be their debut in Technicolor.Lots of fun.

This almost half and hour two reel short subject could almost qualify as as a mini-musical with several numbers by songwriters M.K.Jerome and Jack Scholl. The film is a movie with a short as director Fritz Feld tries desperately to finish a western he's directing and replace his less than talented leading lady Helen Lynd who just can't quite master a mushmouth Southern accent.Feld finds his new leading lady in the Warner Brothers studio cafeteria among the servers in the person of Katherine Kane. The highlight of the short is the break for lunch in the cafeteria where the servers do a number and the camera pans to several of the Warner Brothers stars taking a break.As this film was done in color it rather than some of the feature for these stars might well be considered their respective color debuts.Fritz Feld and assistant Charley Foy provide a lot of laughs. It's a worthwhile short subject and worthy of the Academy Award nomination it got in that category.

Academy-award nominated Short Subject. It's about director Nivitch (Fritz Feld) trying to shoot a Western but having nothing but trouble. He needs a girl with a Southern accent...and finds one working as a waitress in the studio restaurant. You can write the rest yourself.This sounds pretty terrible but it's amusing. It's shot in Technicolor and has some pretty good songs and dances--the dances especially are designed to take advantage of the color. The acting is just OK--Kathryn Kane and Jerry Colonna are the leads. There are also some cameos from Warner Brothers stars in the restaurant. Among them, George Brent, Humphrey Bogart, Pat O'Brien--all in color and smiling for the cameras!Nothing great but fun. Worth seeing.

I happened to spot this short on the 'extras' list for the Bogart 'They Drive by Night' DVD release, so figured that it was worth buying just for that! It's obvious this Vitaphone short is a promo for many of WB's great actors of the period, but don't expect Bogart to do more than just sit at his table in the cafeteria. For anyone interested in behind the scenes camera and sound setups of the late 1930s though, this short will prove of great interest.Forget about the story which has been down a hundred times - beautiful girls come to Hollywood, and most end up serving behind a counter in a store, or much worse. Maybe our female lead here is the lucky one; where else could she meet all the great stars of the period? She is offered her chance which enables the all very capable cast to perform some comedy skits. That was the difference in the Golden Age; even second and third string actors could come up with good performances.To finish it off, it's all in lovely color. Although the short may not have been totally restored, it looks as though it probably came off a close to original negative. Here's hoping more shorts of this nature can be included on future big name movie releases.